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A blog that tackles issues on basic education (in the Philippines and the United States) including early childhood education, the teaching profession, math and science education, medium of instruction, poverty, and the role of research and higher education.

Philippine Education Asian Laggard

The country’s top five universities managed to be included in the top 300 schools in Asia but fared poorly against many educational institutions in other Asian countries.

The University of the Philippines improved to 67th place in 2013 from 68th place in 2012, but Ateneo de Manila University dropped 23 places from 86th in 2012 to 109th in 2013.

The University of Santo Tomas fell two places from 148th in 2012 to 150th in 2013.

De La Salle University placed 151st in 2013 ranking, down from 142nd in 2012.

The University of Southeastern Philippines, a Cebu (sic)-based institution established in 1927 offering Arts and Engineering courses, stayed at 251st rank.

Apparently, the head of the research behind the rankings notes that the Philippines is falling behind Korea, Hong Kong, China and Singapore. This is, however, not the complete story. The Philippines is likewise begin to trail Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The following are the list of universities that made the list from these south east Asian countries:

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"Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations, produced by enthusiastic effort and infinite labor in every country of the world. All this is put into your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it to your children. Thus do we mortals achieve immortality in the permanent things which we create in common." - Albert Einstein

Angel C. de Dios, Ph.D., is currently an associate professor of chemistry at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, he has been teaching General Chemistry since 1995 in addition to graduate courses in molecular spectroscopy and quantum chemistry. His research interests include nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, protein structure determination, anti-malarial drugs, and math and science education. He was a recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and the Georgetown College Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. A member of PAASE (Philippine American Academy of Science and Engineering), he helped the residents of Paete, Laguna incorporate computers and the Internet into their public schools.